Remain in me. Remain in my love. Today, Jesus tells us to remain in his love. Yesterday, he told us to remain in him.
Yes, remain in Jesus!
Why is it in the Gospel of John we find Jesus repeatedly telling us to remain attached to him, to remain in him? Over and over again he commands us to do so. Why?
My friends, we can ultimately do nothing if we do not remain in Jesus. We will find nothing in the end but distress, confusion and unhappiness if we detach ourselves from him. Perhaps some of you reading this have had this experience (if you haven’t try to use your imagination): a dearly loved son or daughter comes to you and says, “I am out of here! I want nothing to do with you or this family anymore! Good bye.” Do you remember the pain you had? Take that pain and magnify it a thousand fold, and then, to use a human analogy to try to understand God, that is the kind of pain God experiences when we choose to not remain in him.
God wants us to remain in his love. He tells us the reason why at the end of today’s Gospel, i.e., so that his joy may be in you and your joy maybe complete. Yes, God wants us to be joyful and he knows this joy is only found in abiding with him in love.
Remain in Jesus!
I want all of you today, at the end of this Mass which will be about 7 o’clock, to shut your eyes for just five seconds and recall the words of Jesus today: Remain in me! Then, at the top of every hour this day, at 8, and 9, and 10 o’clock and so on, shut your eyes for five seconds and repeat Jesus’ command, silently in your mind and heart, Remain in me! We all can do this.
My friends, remain in Jesus! Remain in his love!
